In 1989, Nintendo changed the dark grey parts of the Zapper to “blaze orange” to meet new US Federal regulations about toy guns. That regulation involved required orange plugs or paint at the tips of the barrels of realistic or imitation toy guns.

The regulation passed because people were robbing banks with toy guns, and the orange plug was supposed to let cops know the difference between a deadly weapon and a hunk of plastic. (Turns out the plug requirement doesn’t work as planned. But it did ruin the toy gun industry.)

The Zapper isn’t exactly a realistic toy gun, but acting with its usual overabundance of caution, Nintendo went way beyond a barrel plug. Either way, I am proud to say that, to this date, no one has ever been shot and killed by a NES Zapper.

Given people have robbed banks with a finger in their pocket? Yeah, a Zapper would’ve worked nicely.
I reckon Nintendo’s, umm, wildly orange Zapper had less to do with an overabundance of caution and more to do with injecting orange plastic into the entire dark-gray mold being the cheapest way to comply with the new regulations. Pity the grip was on the same mold as the barrel.

As far as that “americans love guns” line that’s been making the rounds goes… I’d just like to point out the light gun was a thing in Japan too, where it actually LOOKED like a gun instead of something from the set of Buck Rogers.

Could have sworn there was a movie from the 80s (or possibly early 90s) where an alien villain manipulated a NES Zapper with his powers and killed someone with it by pulling the trigger. It was a short scene and wasn’t the focus of the movie. I forget what colors the Zapper had, only that it bothered the heck out of me since I was a little kid at the time and I LOVED playing Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman.